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Minus Eighteen
Minus Eighteen, also known as –18, and often stylized as minus.eighteen, is an American rock band active since 2004, currently consisting of lead vocalist/guitarist Sean Fullerway and drummer Ryan Deckerman. They achieved mainstream success in 2005 with the release of minus.eighteen, which was eventually certified 4x Platinum in the United States. Their popularity increased with subsequent releases. Minus Eighteen formed in 2004 as a three-piece band, with bassist Chris Rivert, but in June 2006, after their first major tour, he decided to leave in order to complete high school/college and subsequently "live a normal life". That same month, Minus Eighteen hired Nonsense musician Brent Villeton but fired him in January 2007 for attempting to "take over the band". Afterwards, Fullerway and Deckerman, the remaining two members of Minus Eighteen, along with their acknowledgement of firing Villeton, stated that they "would operate as a two-piece band, somewhat of a duo, for now", and have, ever since then, written, recorded, and performed as such, with the exception of their 2009 EP, Unplugged, in which Rivert returned briefly as a band member for the EP, which covered several of their hit songs and also featured the single, "Live It Up". To date, Minus Eighteen has sold around 12 million albums in the US and around 35 million albums worldwide. History 2003–04: Beginnings In late 2003, at the age of fourteen, Sean Fullerway had recently left a local band in Miami, FL, Pictures of Nothing due to having to move to Los Angeles, CA, and that resulted in meeting Ryan Deckerman at FFLQDF High School, who was already friends with bassist Chris Rivert and had been considering starting a band. Due to common musical interests, Deckerman and Rivert befriended and jammed with Fullerway for, often, hours a day, for several months, and by February 2004, they said they'd "officially decided to be a band". They subsequently began to perform locally under the name "Minus Eighteen". 2004–06: minus.eighteen & Chris Rivert's departure By the time school let out in May 2004, Minus Eighteen had attracted a relatively large fan base, particularly through performing and self-advertising online. Over the summer, while steadily/quickly growing in popularity, the band decided to write material for an album, and subsequently decided to search for a record label signing. By July 2004, they signed with HFG Records, after getting rejected by several other labels over the preceding few months. The album was produced/recorded from July–September; it turned out to be a more appealing version of the songs Minus Eighteen covered during the first half of the year, reviewers later deeming it "hip hop-tinged pop punk accompanied by more depressing, cleaned-up tracks". The first single was released September 30, 2004, titled "Didn't Think It Through". Though it was a sleeper hit, the song eventually peaked at #3 on the U.S. Hot Modern Rock Tracks and #88 on the Billboard Hot 100. A follow up single was released in December 2004, titled "Hungover", with an announcement for the album's release date, May 2005. "Hungover" was not as successful as its predecessor, only managing #37 on the U.S. Hot Modern Rock Tracks and missing the Hot 100 completely. A third single was released in March 2005, "Of Course", in order to present a more "serious side" of the album. The song was a huge hit, debuting at #95 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April and peaking at #27 by June 2005, selling over 500,000 copies across the United States and helping Minus Eighteen's album, minus.eighteen, released May 2, 2005, peak at #8 on the Billboard 200 and go on to be certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA, and eventually was considered a classic in modern rock music. A fourth single from the album, "All Nighter", was released in July 2005, and peaked at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100, which was considered another hit for them. A fifth single, "Who Cares", was released to rock and mainstream radio in October 2005, though it was ultimately unsuccessful chart-wise. The sixth and final single, "Moving On", released in February 2006, was another mainstream hit for them, peaking at #33 on the Hot 100 (though it took until the summer of '06 for it to peak at #33) as they bordered mainstream popularity with the result of a nationwide tour across the US from 2005–06. After touring, in June 2006, bassist Rivert announced he would be leaving the band, stating, "I never really thought this would go anywhere, and after not seeing my friends or family for the passed year, I'm starting to wish I'd never dropped out of school to go touring. I just don't feel like being in a band is right for me right now." Sure enough, on June 12, 2006, he played his last show with Minus Eighteen, and the other two members, Deckerman and Fullerway, responded, "We thought about disbanding, but we ultimately decided we should go on...." 2006–07: EP & band problems They auditioned for a bassist through the rest of June, and at the end of the month, decided on lead singer/bassist of Nonsense, Brent Villeton. Though it was unknown at the time, Minus Eighteen recorded an EP from July-September 2006 with Villeton on lead vocals and bass, and announced the release of the sarcastically titled EP to be released in November or December 2006. The first single was released September 16, 2006 titled "Oh, Cry Me One", referencing the popular phrase cry me a river; the single peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, which became their most successful single until "Fucking Awesome" was released in 2008. "Oh, Cry Me One" featured vocals by Villeton, who sang the second and third verses. EP was released November 20, 2006 and debuted on the Billboard 200 at #4, eventually certifying 2x Platinum by the RIAA. A second and final single, titled "The Show", was released January 2, 2007, and missed the charts completely. This song was very controversial, in that since there was no percussion and instead featured only an electronically added acoustic guitar and Villeton's vocals; Fullerway and Deckerman both had no involvement in the production/recording of the song. On January 9, 2007, one week after "The Show" was released as a single, the two of them confronted Villeton about the song's release as a single, and he reacted negatively, responding that they were being selfish. Villeton was fired from the band later that day, with Fullerway stating, "I think we'll be okay as a duo for now, at least." Minus Eighteen did a mini-tour for EP that lasted about three months, from December 2006-March 2007, mostly without Villeton. 2007–09: Sophomore Release & Unplugged In April 2007, as a duo, they released a YouTube video stating they were entering the studio and beginning to record their album, and also announcing it would be a more "experimental" release than minus.eighteen, stating their newer music had more hip hop influence than previously. Due to it being a more careful production, the recording process lasted until August 2007, and scheduling for the album's release ensued, and the lead single, "Last Night", was released in November 2007. The song was a big hit for them, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and certifying Platinum in the US. The second single from the album, "Rock 'n' Roll", was released April 18, 2008, and debuted at #47 on the Billboard Hot 100, and peaked at #44 a few weeks later, certifying Gold by the RIAA. The album, sarcastically titled Sophomore Release was released on July 15, 2008, and debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, eventually certifying 5x Platinum in accordance with the RIAA. A third single, "Fucking Awesome", known on the radio versions as "Awesome", was released on a few weeks after the album, on July 30, 2008. It was their most successful song at the time, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and certifying 4x Platinum by the RIAA. A fourth and final single, "Luxury", was released in December 2008 and peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, certifying 3x Platinum. In May 2009, the song "House Party" was released to mainstream radio as the theme song for the 2009 film House Party II. The song was a success, peaking at #12 and certifying 2x Platinum by the RIAA. Shortly after, Deckerman called up both Brent Villeton and Chris Rivert, who were former band members of the band, and invited them to be involved in the production for their next EP, due for release in fall 2009. While Villeton rejected the offer, Rivert happily agreed, saying he "wouldn't mind playing with them again for a little bit". The EP was recorded from May–July 2009, with the first/only single, "Live It Up", being their first song written/recorded together (with Rivert) since the songs of minus.eighteen, was released in June 2009. The song was very successful, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The EP, titled Unplugged, in reference to it being marketed/advertised as an acoustic version of several of their hit songs, was released September 30, 2009, and included nine tracks: four of which were tracked 1-4 and included the hits "Of Course", "Moving On", "Last Night", and "Fucking Awesome" in a very electronic fashion, and tracks 5-8 in which were the actual acoustic versions of the EP. The ninth and final track, which was an international bonus track, was "Live It Up", the new song/single. A mini-tour, from October–December 2009, resulted from Unplugged, and Rivert decided he would participate in it, and did so. 2010–present: Unplugged & Follow Up In early 2010, after a short break, and as a duo again, Minus Eighteen began writing material for a third release. An October/November 2010 release date was given for the album. By September 2010, the production for their third studio album was complete, but the release date was pushed back to January 2011. The first single, "Down to Business", was released in September 2010 and debuted at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their third album, Follow Up, another sarcastic album title by them, was released on April 21, 2011, and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, which was their first album to reach #1 in the United States, selling around 375,000 copies in its first week. Follow Up remained at #1 on the Billboard 200 for ten weeks, selling over 2,750,000 units during that length of time. In June 2011, due to the popularity of its featured singles, Follow Up jumped from #5 on the Billboard 200 back up to #1, selling an estimated 225,000 copies that week. To date, the album has sold over 4 million copies in the US alone. With the popularity of Follow Up, several tracks from the album debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, solely due to digital download, including "Classic", one of the singles, which debuted at #103. The second single from the album, "(Not) Meant to Be", released January 13, 2011, was also successful, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 after a long, four month run. The third single from Follow Up, "Waste My Time", was released March 30, 2011, and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #21, selling over 100,000 copies in its first week, and jumped twelve places to #9 the next week, selling 175,000, and then five more places to #4, with 245,000 more copies sold, and then two more places to #2 (selling 290,000) and, then moved up to and remained at #1 for four weeks (selling an accumulative 1,225,000 copies). It has sold over 3,100,000 copies. A fourth single, titled "If I Wrote You a Love Song", which features American singer Ashlee Parklyn, was released June 1, 2011. The single debuted at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the Hot Shot Debut of the week. The fifth and final single, titled "Classic", is planned for release in August/September 2011. Future Minus Eighteen announced in June 2011 that they would be recording another full-length studio album, tentatively titled Follow Up: Part II, almost back-to-back, through the rest of 2011, and then will go on the extensive Follow Up Tour from 2012–2013. Discography :Main article: Minus Eighteen discography Albums *''minus.eighteen'' (2005) *''Sophomore Release'' (2008) *''Follow Up'' (2011) *''Follow Up: Part II'' (2012) EPs *''EP'' (2006) *''Unplugged'' (2009) Lineup Current *Sean Fullerway — lead vocals, guitar, bass, songwriter (2004–present) *Ryan Deckerman — backing vocals, drums, songwriter (2004–present) Former *Chris Rivert — bass, songwriter (2004–06, 2009) *Brent Villeton — lead vocals, bass (2006–07) Current touring *Zack Johnson — backing vocals, lead guitar (2009–present) *Aaron Summers — backing vocals, bass (2007–present) Former touring *Travis Baker — backing vocals, lead guitar (2007–09)